Hunt for Life's Building Blocks in Space Gets NASA Boost

NASA has
issued a new grant that bolsters research into the cosmic building blocks of
life by funding observations of young solar systems throughout the universe,
including our own.

The
four-year grant sets aside $630,000 to expand operations by the New York Center
for Astrobiology located at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York.

Scientists at
the center study the chemical, geologic and physical conditions on Earth that
allowed life to form. They use this research to steer the hunt
for alien life elsewhere, be it on Mars or in another solar system
altogether.

By
studying new planets that have just recently formed, scientists hope to learn
more about the different types of environments prevalent in the galaxy, as well
determine the odds that places
beyond Earth are habitable.

"We are
looking for the conditions of life, rather than life itself," said RPI physicist
Douglas Whittet, director of the center.

Prior to
planets

The
researchers are also investigating how planets, including Earth, gather the materials they need for life
to take hold.

Chemicals critical
to the foundation of life first formed from molecules cooked through stellar
processes, Whittet said. These chemicals may have formed in clouds of gas
surrounding stars and then piggybacked their way to Earth on meteorites that crashed
into our planet..

"A lot
of organic
molecules present on Earth may have been delivered shortly after it was
formed," Whittet said. "We aim to find out what was happening in the
solar system 4.5 billion years ago when [this happened]. When and how was this
matter synthesized and how common is it?"

Molecular
clouds and disks surround stars and evolve into planets as matter accumulates. Observing
radiation from these regions reveals information about their chemical
composition, and possibly, their contribution to life's building blocks. So
far, there are promising indications that complex chemistry began in
pre-planetary disks.

Chemistry
and planets form together

While early
universe compounds of hydrogen and helium make up the gas bundles around stars,
organic molecules like alcohols and hydrocarbons are more common in the disks,
Whittet said.

However,
some of the most important building blocks for life so far appear to be scarce.

"The
most common material we've found is carbon dioxide, which is not very useful in
making life," Whittet said. "It would be a lot more interesting if
the carbon were going into hydrocarbons, which are a stepping point to much
more complicated molecules."

Currently,
scientists are analyzing data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared
telescope orbiting the sun, collected from 2003 to 2009.

"There's
a huge archive of data that's being analyzed, and the grant will afford us
access to more of that material," Whittet said.